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March 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery

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March 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery
DateMarch 29, 1997 (1997-03-29)
LocationJacksonville, Florida
TypeBank robbery
MotiveTheft of $18.8 million
TargetLoomis Fargo & Company
ConvictedPhilip Noel Johnson
Sentence25 years imprisonment

Philip Noel Johnson (born 1964)[1] is a former armored car driver employed by Loomis Fargo & Company[2] in Jacksonville, Florida. He is notable for the theft of 18.8 million dollars, at the time the largest heist ever pulled off.

Robbery

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On March 29, 1997, Johnson pulled off what was then the largest cash heist in U.S. history,[2] taking $18.8 million ($29.2 million today) from the armored vehicle he was driving. Johnson overpowered two of his co-workers and left them handcuffed in different locations. He stashed most of the $18.8 million in a storage shed in Mountain Home, North Carolina, and moved to Mexico City.

On August 30, 1997, a U.S. Customs Agent at a border crossing from Mexico pulled a passenger from a bus bound for Houston, Texas, suspicious of his responses to her questions. Upon further investigation the agent found the identification offered by the passenger to be a known alias for Johnson, and he was arrested when multiple passports were found in his possession.

Independent of Johnson's apprehension, investigators were already following a trail of clues that led to the North Carolina storage shed on September 18, 1997. Approximately $18 million was recovered from the shed. Johnson was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Johnson was released from prison October 3, 2019.[3]

The robbery was featured in an episode of Daring Capers.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Karl Vick (1997-07-27). "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? HE'S 33, SINGLE, LONELY, GROUCHY, RUMPLED AND VERY POSSIBLY THE RICHEST THIEF WHO EVER LIVED". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  2. ^ a b "Suspect in $22 million armored-car heist arrested". CCN News. August 31, 1997. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  3. ^ "BOP: Federal Inmates by Name".
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